Stroke

One of the after-effects of my stroke 2.5  years ago is I get profoundly exhausted. Very little physical or mental activity and I am exhausted. As an example, our bird table blew over in the recent winds and fell apart. In years past fixing this would have been trivial but these days it has become a major job and by the end I was shattered. You cannot imagine how frustrating this is. My fine motor skills are still poor and ladder work is all but impossible. Life is much harder these days.

Windmill and Museum open

As it is a bank holiday here in the UK, our local museum and windmill in Burwell, Cambs are open.

There is an Easter Egg Hunt for the little ones, but there is loads here always to interest youngsters. Our grandchildren love it.

We can see the windmill and museum from our kitchen and lounge. Ours is the bungalow on the left in the photo. As you can see, we are very close!

See www.burwellmuseum.org.uk .

It is a very fine museum and windmill.

East Anglian Churches Blog

http://eachurches.blogspot.co.uk/
I updated the churches blog with our local church here in Burwell yesterday. It is a church designed by the same man (Reginald Ely) who the world famous Kings College Chapel in Cambridge. Tradition says he practiced on Kings College Chapel!

Winds

It has been very windy over much of the UK in the last 12 hours. It was worse in other parts than here although Storm Katie was enough to blow over our bird table and I notice quite a few fallen branches on the ground when I walked to our local co-op earlier.

The winds are subsiding as the storm slips into the North Sea, leaving behind sunny intervals and blustery showers. We have all the family here today.

BST (British Summer Time)

If you are in the UK did you remember to turn your clocks forward an hour last night? We lose an hour but get this back in the autumn when we go back to GMT. At least we get an extra hour of light in the evenings, which is good.

I not sure when BST first started (WW2?), but it is good idea. There was even thought of adopting BST all year around. I think clocks are also advanced in some European countries too, but I'm not sure if they move at the same date.

Red legged partridge

We frequently get these birds wandering around our close. There are also 3 Mallard ducks that appear regularly. Red legs now far outnumber ordinary partridges.

I think red legged partridges were introduced, but they are now widespread in the UK. Like several introduced species these have become widespread.

The pheasant was introduced but you find these all over the place. It is a pity these don't have more road sense!  Pheasants seem to wander across roads just as cars approach.

Spring?

There are probably another 6 weeks before we see the trees coated in fresh green, the blossom well out, and fields of yellow rape.

Swallow

Already the first sand martins are returning to Devon and there has even been a report of a returning swallow in Devon. It will probably be into April before I spot swallows up here in East Anglia. Usually I see my first swallows here April 7-14th. Swifts are not usually seen (by me at least!) until the end of April.




See  http://www.wildlifeindevon.org.uk/pages/sightings.htm .

These returning migrants bring joy to my heart: long after I am gone they will still be doing this journey as their ancestors have done for thousands of years. I admit there have been times when I never thought I'd see this spring.